A Forgotten Empire (Vijayanagar): A Contribution to the History of India c19.140

c19.140

In the next year, 1558, according to Couto,⁴ Râma Râya made an expedition to “Meliapor,” or Mailâpur, near Madras, where was an important establishment of Roman Catholic monks and the Church of St. Thomas. I quote the passage from the summary given by Senhor Lopes in his introduction to the *Chronica dos Reis de Bisnaga* (p. lxvi.). “The poor fathers of the glorious Order of St. Francis having seized all the coast from Negapatam to San Thomé, they being the first who had begun to preach there the light of the Holy Gospel, and having throughout that tract thrown down many temples and destroyed many pagodas, a thing which grieved excessively all the Brahmans, these latter reported the facts to Râma Râya, king of Bisnaga, whose vassals they were, and begged him that he would hasten to their assistance for the honour of their gods."